amanda moon headwear

Well, it’s the first week of the school summer holidays and I’ve made a decision.

I’m going to take a little break from blogginess.

I’ve really enjoyed it so far but I’m going to take the summer to slow down on the techy side of my business, especially here on Blogdom.

The reason?  For over five years, my life has been consumed by my business.  Alongside trying to be an alright mum and doing some teaching, my  business has taken more of me than anything else. It has been squeezed in between looking after my children, I have sat up night after night working until the early hours, during holidays my work has always been eaten into by the fact that I run my own business. And so , my head has never been fully out of work and with the people I’m with.

I could have been cleverer about how I managed myself as a young business but with so many other big factors pulling me, it’s been hard to step back from what you’re in and know how to prioritise.  So I’ve tried to do everything all of the time and slowly my body and mind have become very weary.

It’s not a bad thing.  I love what I do.  I always make my making and work for clients my first priority in my business but what I can see is that I have a choice to rest from social media.  I find it hugely consuming as it’s a very important element of my business but I also believe we all need some time out, especially from that which isn’t essential, to be able to come back refreshed and with something valuable to say and show.

Saying that might be a reflection of my age and not wholly being in love with social media despite being in the grasp of it. But I hope that as the summer surrounds us, you too are taking time out to just enjoy what’s happening out there in the real world and having time with the wonderful people around you.

I will be back in September, and FB, Twitter and Insta don’t stop for the most part, it might  just be a tad more relaxed.  I’m on a social media go-slow.  However, my fingers don’t stop, my studio and silks still see me and I still get to meet new and wonderful clients.

I’m looking forward to blogging again, having taken a step back, having focused soley on designing and making, playing with my family and friends, absorbing the wonderful environment I’m surrounded by and finding out more  about what I love.

Here’s to a rest from the media that we’re blasted with daily.

I’ll be back!

Now I’ve written the title I realise it sounds a little alarming.  But it is what he said.  He being Dennis.  Dennis Lees.

Back in my London days, pre-children, pre- millinery I used to climb and in my little world were many very special people.  Dennis was one of those who week in week out, I’d see at the wall and headed up to the Peaks with a couple of times.

Then came the time of many changes for many people. I moved up to Sheffield and he went off to the US, got married and that is where home is.

It was on Facebook that we reconnected after a while and after a few catch ups, Dennis proposed a shoot.  He had a face he loved, Jen King’s, and he told her, “I wanna shoot your face’.  With the face, Crackskull’s cafe as the spot to shoot in, and headwear, it was a case of flying the pieces out to him and then just doing the deed.

Coming back to the face, I’m so glad he wanted it.  As soon as I saw her, I could understand how he was seeing her and my pieces together.  However, I really couldn’t have expected quite what I got from it.

You see, Dennis, has a great ability to create and visualise.  He has this ability to ‘interpret’ work and convey the personality of the work AND the person.  Then, beyond that has a background in design so can see how to then use the image. He has taught me alot and you’ll see from the final shot why I am left so happy.

This shoot was done much earlier in the year, but amidst a couple of other shoots and events, I’ve held off from sharing the images so each little project hasn’t overshadowed the other.  Each one is a huge learning curve, that teaches me something new and shows me something different.  I’m not normally so patient but it has felt good to wait. And so here it is. A collection of images sent to me pre, during and post shoot.  I was on the journey, just from a distance.

When you’re shown who he wants to shoot.

..and they let you  into the shoot even when your thousands of miles away.

And, then you get inklings of how he’s going to work with the images.

To finally get these.  Two beautifully elegant and understated images. 

This last image is so special.  I couldn’t have defined how to achieve a picture like this.  He just knew.

Model Jen King

Photographydennisleesphotography.com

Location crackskulls.com

I was stuck for something to write tonight.  Slightly exhausted so I’m writing about my worlds.  I don’t have to think about it…it is just what I do and love. Forgive any typos!

My life is split.  Though millinery is where I put most of my hours, I am also a teacher and keep my hand in where I can.

To be able to combine both of my working worlds is something I have started and want to grow more.

I went into teaching in my mid twenties.  I did it because first, I just love being with kids and families but secondly because I love seeing children find parts of themselves they didn’t know existed.  Art was/is an area I really enjoy teaching because the immediate visual outcome can be a real booster to children’s confidence.  And so, I feel the same for adults.

I used to hate producing work that wasn’t ‘good enough’.  My  self evaluation of failure would really stick with me and I started to loose my love for creating stuff purely for pleasure.  The destructive side of aiming for perfection.  I then came back to painting and making with a more open mind years later and with a willingness for it not to be perfect.  It did mean lots of wasted paper but it got me over this notion of making for a great a result but more for enjoying the process of creating and finding out what I could achieve.

That part of my own ‘journey’ impacts of how I teach; I can’t each without appreciating how hard it can be to take the first step in. I approach those who fear failing or those who don’t believe they have a creative bone in their body with gentle encouragement and mainly to just try and enjoy the experience.  Outcome isn’t everything – despite what we’re often made to feel in this success driven culture of ours.

So there it is. The reason I love to teach adults and children alike, is because people are just wonderful to be around and seeing individuals inspired and recognising they do have an element of creativity about them is simply rewarding, fun and can change someone’s perception of themselves.

Where millinery and teaching meet is one of favourite places and I want more of it.  It’s a smile giver to all involved!

A few snippets of workshops I’ve managed to get pics of. I’m not great at getting pics but it gives a gist of it.

Age UK Sheffield

Frida Kahlo Hen Party

Looking at the process of hat design with 7 – 11 year olds

Short workshop creating May Queen Flower Crowns with 7 and 8 year olds

My little buttons.  I was just talking about them yesterday…I talk about them a lot.  And, I make them lots.

It’s not that  I don’t want to make other hats (I have lots of ideas I want to develop for next year), it’s just that the button has some very special qualities.

They take hours to make, especially the silk buttons .  Lots of TLC is needed but it feels worth it and I still don’t get bored, which is quite something as I’m not great at repetition.

But, this little obsession feels worth it because of what they give.

They are an understated, timeless shape and can hold all sorts of character.  It just depends on what you do with the simple little form that it is.  The colours can make a small but punchy piece, a bumble bee can add some quirk, a simple length of something grass-like can make it an elegant piece or it can become distinctly vintage-esque dependent on what you throw together.

It’s also ageless…it doesn’t like one particular age group.  It embraces all ages.  It doesn’t swamp a mother of the bride/groom yet she still makes a statement and it sits equally as beautifully on a young thing who simply enjoys an excuse to pop a  little hair dressing-up in to the mix of an outfit.  I sit between young thing and mother-of-a-something.  And it works for ladies in my bracket too, just because the button doesn’t care how you are, they just like you and know how to sit on you, regardless.

Finally, they love people who don’t love hats or rather, people who think hats don’t love or look good on them.  People are always surprised at how easy they are to wear.  Their proportion isn’t to over-powering, they can sit at different angles that work for so many ladies, and the trimmings and colours used are built to be fitting for that particular perosn.

Any thing that is put on your head, should feel wholly a part of you and you should barely be aware of it (I say that so much but it’s true).  These little beauties are one of those shapes that I think offer some of the greatest versatility and simply make people feel really good. And that’s what it’s about.  Just feeling good!

Lovely bride Kimberly going with a vintage wedding outfit.  Blue shoes were worn to match!

Kimberly – real Bride

Esme wearing Faun thistle

MUAH juliajeckell.com

Photography elliegracephotography.co.uk/Home

Lovely mother of the Bride

Model Cleo

MUAH morrisbeautyassociates.com

Photography elliegracephotography.co.uk/Home

Location facebook.com/lightspacecollective

Model Katy Louise Bangert

MUA makeupbypacha.com

Hair facebook.com/gypsy.rosehairdressing

Dress kmrbespokebridal.co.uk

Photography elliegracephotography.co.uk/Home

I’d met her two years before at my annual pop up shop. That was when she had her first piece of mine. So, I was made up when an email came through wanting to book in a consultation.

Amy is another of my very lovely clients who brings her personality and makes my making a whole lot of fun.  She arrived at my studio in her lipstick print dress, blonde hair spiked with pink and a bird.

She’d seen the bird a little while back and had held onto it, waiting for it to find it’s purpose.  The purpose was now found.  With weddings coming up, the bird would become her wedding companion.

As with most consultations, flora and fauna are spread across the table and we pulled out combinations that lit each other up. Hot pinks, bold oranges and acid green were thrown together in this case and the birdie sat beside them; at ease and happy that it would make fine nesting ground.

Without further ado, the base was prepared and my needle stitched away and finally our lovely bird was given it’s home.  When I finished the piece, I delivered to Amy’s house. There up on a shelf was a quilt. It was all the colours of her headpiece!  What you see below are a little collection of pics … from the beginning through to sitting on the lovely Amy’s head.  And then there is one pic showing the co-ordinated headpiece with quilt!

Yet another wonderful lady to make for!

I get asked this so many times and I like the question.

I have many things that inspire me.  I’ve talked about colour lots, in fact, it was one of my earlier posts.

However, I think the greatest inspiration has to be people.  I’m a bit concerned it sounds a bit ‘naff’ or cliche but it’s true.  I always come back to my work being about personality.  Personality leads the colour, the style, the scale.

It’s the person that gives me a part of themselves, a little window into who they are and who tell me small parts of what makes them feel alive.  They show me an outfit or tell me the colours they love and combinations come together that capture the essence of who they are. We play with scale and angles and it all slowly becomes a refined piece of work that wholly becomes the extension of who they.

On my instagram account there is a little box on my feed.  The challenge is to encapsulate my business in just a few words.  I went for, ‘Bring me your personality and I’ll bring the flowers’.  Bit cringe-worthy when you have to talk about the way you present yourself. However, given a personality with an openness to look at the possibilities, I really can bring the flowers to the table and make a home for them on your head!

People are inspiring  and so the making never gets boring.  Within my repertoire of work, each person throws a new dimension into how I pull my flowers together.  People are diverse; and, central to what I do is a love for people.

So, bring me your personalities!

(I’ve got a piece I’m hoping to share with you very soon…a fab lady, that headwear has brought my way, and has made making extremely fun!)

I’ve got so much I want to write about and I have these ideas when I’m driving about.   But, when it comes to writing, I then get this wall of stuckness and wonder what to write!

I just tried to write a piece and it just didn’t happen.  Then, I remembered the drive when I was thinking about what I want from my millinery.  Of course I want to make beautiful pieces; arranging and re-arranging flowers, intricately stitching in one flower after another and sitting with a pile of sumptuous silks just looking at their colours and conjuring up a plan.

What I want more is to have a friendly relationship with my client.  I understand that I am in this to offer a professional service.  A service that gives the client the piece that suits them and is crafted to perfection for them.  However, the friendly bit matters so much.  You know how I gabble on about personality being central to my work; it really is.  Friendliness allows the work to become more personal and more ‘right’ for the person.  If I really get a sense of who you are (without knowing all the intricacies) then it is easier to create something that truly reflects you.

In a friendly relationship, the client relaxes.  They open up (as much as they want to), they can be honest about the suggestions you put to them and they give you an insight into who they really are.  All of that informs my making.  It’s hard to explain some of the subtleties that come through in a friendly relationship but you can read a person better and you can refine a piece in scale or with a single flower that changes the whole tone of piece to be even more that person.

The friendly relationship allows me to be inspired by you. If I know you just a little, my pieces will reflect you and as you wear them, they will feel a part of you.  They are an extension of you…even if just for a day!

Well, todays blog is the result of something that happened this week.

I have  shoot on Sunday.  Shoots are so important when you’re in a visual business.  You want to show people what you make and you want to help them see the possibilities with what you do.

I had a model and then I didn’t have a model. In my quest to solve my little problem (Think I might have called it a ‘state of emergency’ on my personal page.  Possibly a bit dramatic), I was going to approach a few individuals.  However, with time being short, I couldn’t have guaranteed finding anyone who a) would want to do it, 2) would be available for it and 3) who would have been right for these pieces.

Throwing caution to the wind, I thought I would put a call out on Face Book.   Could I have guessed what the response would have been like?  Never!

There was enthusiasm,  diversity of women, encouraging words about my work, there were numerous shares of my request from so many of you to help me find someone.  It was truly overwhelming.  So much so, I had to stop answering all the messages coming through so that I could keep sewing for my pop up shop that opened today.

It felt rather hard to then just choose one lady from all those that offered to be a model for me.  As I had said to a few of those who showed interest, I was literally going to sit with the selfies sent to me and put the faces up to my hats and hope to work it out from there!

What has come out of this? Well, not just a model…something more important; encouragement.  Small businesses fight hard to get themselves off the ground.  You put in all of yourself, you sit up until 2.30 in the morning sewing, your head is always full of the next thing to do and sometimes you just want to stop and throw your hands up in the air and turn your back on it.  These moments spur you on.  They are significant and hugely valued.

It is hard to return thanks to all the people who support you along the way.  However, to all the women who put themselves forward, thank you so much for being ready to give me your heads, your enthusiasm and your time.  I am going to keep all your names and when shoots come up in the future, I’m going to look through my little book of faces and try to use some of you.  As I had said in my call out, I don’t need an official model.  I need and want women who have willing, beauty (in all it’s shapes and forms) and a smile!

Thank you for making this shoot happen.

Seriously.  A huge thank you.

This is a nice story.

I’ve always felt I was very lucky with what came to me.  Throughout my growing up and in my career as a teacher, opportunities and fantastic experiences were given to me that have helped me to grow and develop myself.

Since, I’ve been Amanda Moon Headwear, the support has gone above and beyond what I could imagine and people have lifted me up and pushed me along on more occasions than I can care to remember.  They still do now and I suspect will continue to.  You’ll hear more of those stories but this one tonight is quite a special little one as it’s a story that crosses over from my teaching into millinery.

For the last couple of years, I’ve been involved with a project called Venture Matrix at Hallam University.  It is a link between businesses and students, where businesses present a project that they would value some support in and students work to that as part of a module.

When I presented my last ideas, I got more than I bargained for.  More students to work with and more ideas that stemmed out my initial proposal.  With close to 30 first year Digital Media Students, I was excited at what could come out of it.  However, even more exciting than the work that would be explored was the forehead that peeped over a PC at the back of the room on my first visit.

The lecturer had said one of his students recognised my name.  My mind was obviously trying to think of who it could.  However, the chances of guessing when you’ve worked for 10 years in city, is near impossible.  As I stood at the front of the room, ready to introduce myself, there I saw that head.  It was the hairline, the blackness of his hair and the eyebrows.  I knew them and with 10 years (possibly more) gone by I still recognised him.

I can’t tell you the pleasure of coming across one of your ex-pupils and seeing them chasing their ambitions to do something they love and are good at. Even more lovely than that, is the fact that he was offering something back to me.  Ideas, experience and a product.

And so, with a thanks to the lovely Andrew, here are some of the pics he captured of my work.  They were taken as part of creating a short film.  As is typical, my techiness illiteracy fails to let me use it here on WordPress (but one day it will be shared!).  The pictures alone and the processes we went through taught me so much about the possibilities. A truly valuable experience. And, he is just in his first year.

(Thank you also to the beautiful Elisa.  A fellow student, who’s never modelled and neither would she naturally choose to.  BUT she is just stunning and in smart too!)

Time ticks.  My goal was to get this blogging thing rolling…a nice little time to sit and reflect on what I do and share that with you.  However, here I am again, writing the night before posting at 10.45 and still with a list of jobs to do!  The clock is ticking.  It’s going to be another late night!

I have to confess, blogging doesn’t always feel like the poetic process I thought it might be.  I should have known better really.  It does however, highlight that when you have a business, you work to deadlines constantly and there is no let up.

More and more I hear people say how starting up a business is a 24/7 job.  Guess what?  They don’t just say it for fun!  I thoroughly love making what I do.  My clients are what give me a spring in my step.  I love the creative process and am desperate for more time to start creating something slightly different.  However, I need the gift of time.

Time is where you find your ideas.  Time is where you can relax and come back into a space, refreshed and with fingers that have uncurled themselves from hours of intricate sewing  (sewing into awkward spaces by hand puts your fingers in twisted positions). Time is where you can sit, be reflective and be a poetic blogger!

For now I have to accept I am less than poetic.  And less visual.   However, here is a blog that simply shares where I am today and that I hope will start to tell a different story about time as I continue. Here’s to blogging becoming less of a thing to squeeze in  and more something that I can truly find a rhythm with and write/show something of value to you all.

Here’s to us all, in this ridiculously fast and busy world, taking time to stop the clock – just for a moment even; find space, relax and uncurl your fingers.

Until next week, time is ticking so for now I say goodnight.